The International is an annual electronic sports Dota 2 championship tournament hosted by Valve Corporation, the video game developer behind Dota 2, in which sixteen teams are personally invited to compete. The tournament began as the first public debut of Dota 2 in August 2011 at Gamescom, with a total prize pot of $1.6 million, with a grand prize of one million dollars going towards the championship team, setting the record for being the most lucrative video game tournament at the time.

Valve announced the first edition of the tournament on August 1, 2011. It took place at Gamescom in Cologne from August 17 to 21.

Sixteen teams were invited to the tournament, with the top eight teams receiving prize money.

Place     Team                                                                             Prize money

1st         Ukraine Natus Vincere                                                    $1,000,000

2nd       China EHOME                                                                 $250,000

3rd        Singapore Scythe Gaming                                                $150,000

4th        Denmark MeetYourMakers                                               $80,000

5/6th     China Invictus Gaming                                                      $35,000

5/6th     Russia Moscow Five                                                        $35,000

7/8th     Thailand MiTH.Trust                                                         $25,000

7/8th     European Union Online Kingdom.Nirvana int                       $25,000

Source from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_International_(video_gaming)

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena video game and the stand-alone sequel to the Defense of the Ancients (DotA) mod. Developed by Valve Corporation, the game was officially released on July 9, 2013 as a free-to-play title for Microsoft Windows, concluding a beta testing phase that began in 2011. OS X and Linux versions of Dota 2 were released on July 18, 2013. In most regions, Dota 2 is exclusively available through Valve's content delivery platform, Steam.

Each match of Dota 2 involves two teams, both containing five players and occupying a fortified stronghold at either end of the map. Victory is achieved by destroying the enemy's Ancient, which is invulnerable until certain objectives are achieved. Each player controls a "Hero" character and focuses on leveling up, acquiring items and fighting against the other team to achieve victory during each match.

Development of Dota 2 began in 2009, with the hiring of DotA developer "IceFrog" to serve as the sequel's lead designer. Dota 2 was praised by video game critics, who lauded it for remaining faithful to its predecessor while also increasing the level of production quality, as well as for its engaging and rewarding gameplay experience. However, Dota 2 was criticized for its steep learning curveand inhospitable community. The game has become the most played on Steam, with daily peaks of over 550,000 concurrent players.

Source from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dota_2

Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a multiplayer online battle arena mod for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft. The objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents' Ancient, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters. As in role-playing games, players level up their heroes and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.

The scenario was developed with the "World Editor" of Reign of Chaos, and was updated upon the release of its expansion, The Frozen Throne. There have been many variations of the original concept; the most popular being DotA Allstars, which eventually was simplified to DotA with the release of version 6.68. This specific scenario has been maintained by several authors during development, the latest of whom being the anonymous developer known as "IceFrog" developing the game since 2005.

Since its original release, DotA has become a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment's BlizzCon and the Asian World Cyber Games, as well as the Cyberathlete Amateur and CyberEvolution leagues; in a 2008 article of video game industry website Gamasutra, the article's author claimed that "DotA is likely the most popular and most-discussed free, non-supported game mod in the world".DotA is largely attributed to being the most significant inspiration for the multiplayer online battle arena genre.Valve Corporation acquired the intellectual property rights to DotA to develop and release a stand-alone sequel, Dota 2.

source from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_the_Ancients